Hacking the default Chess program
 

Hey all!

I'm attempting to give this game a nicer appearance, but I simply can't do it on my own.

I'm hoping someone would like to show off their creative talent by helping me with this.

I'm using these for the chess pieces.
http://plugins.svn.wordpress.org/che...ces/merida/76/

I sized them all down to 56x56.

Here is what I have so far.
http://img205.imageshack.us/img205/6...2022800413.png

I'm trying to go for something like this with the exact same coloring.
http://mip.noekeon.org/HTMLTTChess/screenshots.html

If anyone is interested, here are my requests.

The Background_board_flipletters.png and Background_board_flipnumbers.png can be plain. There's no need for having the board coordinates on the screen.

The pieces_with_shadow image.png, I'm not sure of this since I have yet to see them ever being used in the game.

For the pieces.png, it would be wonderful instead of it being off-white, if they were just pure white like in the link up above with the screenshots.

I also attached a black and white king to be used for the Black_White_active.png and Black_White_passive.png images.

Everything else, just go crazy with whatever would blend in correctly.

I know that this is a huge request, so only take it upon yourself if you really want to make someone very happy and if you're painfully bored beyond any belief. :)

Here are all of the graphics.
Attachment 25240

Cheers and I hope to hear from a wonderful person here.

Most kindly,
James

Re: Hacking the default Chess program
 

I thought I would try this on my own for a little bit last night.

I'm really not that good with graphics, but hey, it's kind of neat learning a few things on my own.

Anyway, the pieces just don't look right on this board and I'm only about 25% or so into this...

http://img571.imageshack.us/img571/6772/16609846.png

If anyone has a good chess set that has a transparent background, could you post or PM a response?

Thanks. :)

Re: Hacking the default Chess program
 

I'd rather recommend getting involved in "Miniature" or at least giving it a try because that's still actively developed... :)

Re: Hacking the default Chess program
 

Perhaps, but only supported for Harmattan with "experimental" Fremantle support according to its website. Addison's running Diablo and Qt is a bit of a dead end there anyway.

Besides, osso-chess isn't half bad, and the source is available under a Free (GPL) licence except for the graphics and sounds, so it's really nice to see someone working on replacements :-)

Re: Hacking the default Chess program
 

Thank you for the pieces lma! I actually like them very much and they all are a perfect size! :)

Unfortunately, they came out just a little too transparent. *lol*

http://img444.imageshack.us/img444/2460/96593867.png

I'm not sure if I have the talent to whiten them up, but I'll give it a shot later.

Cheers. :)

Re: Hacking the default Chess program
 

Has anybody actually beaten the damn computer? We pit the n900 (EASY) against Windows (GRANDMASTER) chess game and the n900 won 10/10 times!

Re: Hacking the default Chess program
 

My chess ELO rating is a stellar 1300.

What do you think? :)

Re: Hacking the default Chess program
 

James, you're a grandmaster in the scheme of things. If you can have an ELO rating of -1300, that would be me :(

Re: Hacking the default Chess program
 

One of my all-time favourite bugzilla comments:

"Reporter should learn how to play chess better if he's not able to win the easy level."

Goes doubly for Windows I suppose.

Re: Hacking the default Chess program
 

My chess opening, that I always use in the beginning, is called "The Lion".

Whether I play as black or white, my first 12 or 13 moves are always the same. No thinking required at all on my behalf.

Are you honestly saying that you play worse than this? :)

Re: Hacking the default Chess program
 

Oh, and lma, I tried the Paintbucket option inside the white knight using an online photoshop web page.

It didn't work for some reason.

Dern.

I'll keep looking....

Re: Hacking the default Chess program
 

I've been mentally scared since getting beaten by my friend's 9 year old brother. So the day I can beat the n900, will be the day I get my payback... hopefully :(

Re: Hacking the default Chess program
 

^ I'm not even going to wish you luck on that, rather I wish you someone else's skill. :)

Re: Hacking the default Chess program
 

From this site...
http://chesstempo.com/

The chess pieces are beautiful but only 55x55.

http://i41.tinypic.com/1z6ruio.png

I can add an extra blank pixel for each of them, but can I legally do this?

Sorry, but I don't have the first clue to internet ethics. :)

Re: Hacking the default Chess program
 

Check their licensing.. Also if it's for personal experimenting purposes, I don't see why there would be any legal issues..

Re: Hacking the default Chess program
 

Ughh... Too much legal language grumblings.

http://chesstempo.com/tos.html

In a nutshell, can I just steal their junk? :)

Re: Hacking the default Chess program
 

Not according to clause 10. But you might want to contact them and ask in case the graphics in question are not their copyright and available under some more liberal license.

Re: Hacking the default Chess program
 

Internet Ethics? Wasn't aware that such a thing exists.

Re: Hacking the default Chess program
 

Well, I already knew ahead of time that I would be breaking most rules with internet copyrights once I shared the new voice sounds for this game.

I was just trying to limit everything wrong I'm doing here. :)

Re: Hacking the default Chess program
 

It's hard for me to tell how active development is with Miniature. Its proponents tend to be boastful, but I've yet to see a decently usable version after what seems to be years of development. I have installed Miniature quite a few times, only to remove it. But maybe that's because I only have an N900 (actually, I have two of them now).

Re: Hacking the default Chess program
 

On closer inspection miniature seems to be a different animal altogether, focusing on online play rather than against the computer. Ironically, osso-chess seems to be based on babychess which was also capable of playing online games but that functionality has been stripped out. Go figure.

Re: Hacking the default Chess program
 

Well, I think I'm about done with all of the graphics and coloring.

http://img401.imageshack.us/img401/8...2042605083.png

The only thing left to do is change the sound files as well.

I swear Nokia just recorded pots and pans banging together for their game noises. *lol*

Re: Hacking the default Chess program
 

Okay. Here's pretty much then end of this little project.

Let me know if there are any problems.

Download, unzip and put it on MMC1.

Copy and paste the Chess notes files into Xterm.

Cheers. :)

Attachment 25727

Re: Hacking the default Chess program
 

I want to let the black pieces face to the upper part of the screen, can I just rotate all black pieces with 180 degrees?

I play this a lot with a friend but one of us has always have to look "upsidedown"

Re: Hacking the default Chess program
 

I don't know why people want to play against computers, which don't typically play beautiful moves but just manage to grind out wins. Playing people is more fun, and real people are always available online somewhere.

Re: Hacking the default Chess program
 

Maybe because computer isn't upset if You must break game in the middle, and You can continue same play after day or two?

C'mon, I understand that you prefer playing with livings - yet, it don't think that it was constructive comment in this project's thread. You could as good say "I don't understand why people are playing chess, when they have OpenTTD available for N900".

/Estel

Re: Hacking the default Chess program
 

I typically play one or three minute games. When I get a phone call in the middle, I can and do resign. You can abandon a game very quickly with a human, if need be.

Re: Hacking the default Chess program
 

Sorry. I totally missed this question.

No, it's not possible.

Each piece only has one graphic and unfortunately, with two players, the board doesn't rotate per turn.

I also changed the final screenshot of this in my previous post.

I just added some gray around the board.

Re: Hacking the default Chess program
 

Oh wait... You want all of the black pieces to face the other way?

Yeah, this can be done.

I think it would look a little weird for both of you though.

Re: Hacking the default Chess program
 

I actually like them very much.
but chess...........;what i'm saying i dont no

Re: Hacking the default Chess program
 

Quick reply...
That's the most humorous-and-productive thread I have ever had pleasure reading, I suspect. Thank you. I might give it a try soon, very soon. Personally, I prefer to bring everything with myself, so AI chess opponent in my pocket sounds better than having to catch Internet connection on the go.
Best wishes. Thanks to everybody!
_________________
Per aspera ad astra...

Re: Hacking the default Chess program
 

These graphics are so much better. I wish the board still had the letter/numbers though.

Re: Hacking the default Chess program
 

What about modifying "osso-chess/Undo_Redo.png", "osso-chess/Undo_Redo_dimmed.png", "osso-chess/Undo_Redo_pressed.png" and "osso-games-startup-chess.png"?

Re: Hacking the default Chess program
 

I'm not all too sure, maybe just some extra fluff that was never used in the game I believe.

I never saw those show up anywhere while playing.

Sorry.

Re: Hacking the default Chess program
 

At last I am playing chess on N900.Thank you Addison.

Re: Hacking the default Chess program
 

"osso-games-startup-chess.png" is the banner within the program before you start playing a game (on the screen with play, restart, continue, expert, easy, et cetera).
Undo-Redo buttons are in the right lower corner of the screen when you are playing a game, to allow you to undo-redo the moves.
Just mentioning.

Re: Hacking the default Chess program
 

For some reason, the Maemo 4 build doesn't have this.

I tried looking around for it back in the day but eventually gave up.

I guess that I could change the Undo and Redo buttons, what did you have in mind?

Maybe you could give me an example using this site:
http://cooltext.com/Logo-Design-Ghost-Button

Also, I can probably put the coordinates back on the screen.

Does anyone know of a special trick on how to reverse the H to A letters to make them A to H without flipping all of the graphics backwards?

http://img62.imageshack.us/img62/891...2122004173.png

This one needs to be reversed as well.

http://img4.imageshack.us/img4/4790/...2122004254.png

Those two graphics should be available to download at the end of this post.

Cheers. :)

Re: Hacking the default Chess program
 

Well... On Maemo 5, all these images (including "/usr/share/pixmaps/osso-games-startup-chess.png") are neatly packed inside package osso-graphics-game-chess, which is necessary for osso-chess-ui. However, while this link implies that Maemo 4, similarly, has osso-chess-ui, I could not find this package within Diablo repositories.

Undo-Redo buttons... First, there are some neutral buttons. Second, there is a glass button. Third, there is my own random drawing attached.
Best wishes.
_________________
Per aspera ad astra...

Re: Hacking the default Chess program
 

Can you create a deb. package for files:
/usr/share/pixmaps/osso-games-startup-chess.png
/usr/share/pixmaps/osso-chess/Undo_Redo_pressed.jpg
/usr/share/pixmaps/osso-chess/Background_board_flipletters.png
/usr/share/pixmaps/osso-chess/legal_move.png
/usr/share/pixmaps/osso-chess/Undo_Redo_dimmed.jpg
/usr/share/pixmaps/osso-chess/Black_White_passive.jpg
/usr/share/pixmaps/osso-chess/pieces.png
/usr/share/pixmaps/osso-chess/selection.png
/usr/share/pixmaps/osso-chess/Black_White_active.jpg
/usr/share/pixmaps/osso-chess/Background_control.jpg
/usr/share/pixmaps/osso-chess/Background_board_flipnumbers.jpg
/usr/share/pixmaps/osso-chess/Background_board.jpg
/usr/share/pixmaps/osso-chess/Undo_Redo.jpg
/usr/share/pixmaps/osso-chess/pieces_with_shadow.png
? Please?
It would be a nice replacement of closed-source package "osso-graphics-game-chess". It could become part of CSSU. Like osso-calculator...
Best wishes.
_________________
Per aspera ad astra...

Re: Hacking the default Chess program
 

I can barely use the command line.... there is no way I would ever understand what to do in making a .deb file for this.

Sorry. :(

By the way, I have also hacked or added features to Eboard and Scid (the best chess program available) if you're interested. :)